Surgical needle holder



"g- D LABRAMSON 3398346 SURGI CAL NEEDLE HOLDER Filed 001,. 21, 1965 1rnuavron DANIEL J ABRAMSON United States Patent 3,398,746 SURGICAL NEEDLE HOLDER Daniel J. Abramson, 2800 Greenvale St., Chevy Chase, Md. 20015 Filed Oct. 21, 1965, Ser. No. 499,527 6 Claims. (Cl. 128-340) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A surgical needle holder comprising a pair of pivoted members each having a short jaw and a longer handle on opposite sides of the pivot, said handles being at least of a length equal to the width of the hand of a user and being oppositely curved so as to fit in the palm for application of squeezing pressure between the fingers and heel of the thumb, said jaws having tip portions including substantially planar continuous faces for mutual engagement without interposition of other parts except when clampingly engaging a surgical needle, and resilient biasing means urging said handle portions apart to engage the clamping faces of the jaw tip portions.

This invention relates to improvements in surgical needle holders.

Conventional needle holders are difficult to use by surgeons and wasteful of effort, time and motions. The usual needle holder comprises a pair of pivoted jaws having handle portions terminating in finger loops and ratchet members protruding toward each other which lock the handle portions together clamping the jaws about a needle. To explain the wasted effort and motions involved in utilizing such instruments, it will be apparent that to grasp a needle, insert the needle in tissue and pull it through for only one stitch involves the following motions:

(1) The fingers are inserted in the finger loops;

(2) By pressure transverse to the plane of the holder, the ratchet is released and the jaws opened;

(3) By finger pressure of the loops toward each other, the ratchet is closed to clamp the jaws about the needle;

(4) The fingers are removed from the loops and moved along the holder closer to the jaws;

(5) The holder is moved to insert the needle point through the tissue;

(6) The fingers are returned to the loops;

(7) By transverse pressure the ratchet is opened releasing the needle;

(8) The holder is moved to regrasp the needle at its forward end;

(9) By finger pressure the ratchet is closed to again grasp the needle;

(10) The fingers are removed from the loops and moved closer to the jaws;

(11) The holder is moved to draw the needle entirely through the tissue;

(12) The fingers are repositioned in the loops; and

(13) By transverse pressure the ratchet is opened to release the needle.

All preceding motions are then repeated for each stitch.

It is the primary object of the present invention to obviate the above stated disadvantages of conventional surgical needle holders.

It is an important object of the present invention to provide a needle holder which may be used with great saving of time and motions.

Another object of the invention is to enable suturing to be performed easier, faster and more efliciently.

A further object of the invention is to provide a needle holder which may be used with less fatigue and less muscular effort.

Yet a further object of the invention is to provide a needle holder which may be used without applying pres- 'ice sure through the fingers and thumbs, the muscular effort being primarily limited to squeezing of the holder in the palm of the hand.

To accomplish the above objects and purposes I provide a novel needle holder similar in shape and form to a conventional holder, but in which the jaws are spring biased to close thereby avoiding the need for finger loops to operate the jaws and ratchets to maintain the jaws locked closed.

The novel features that are considered characteristic of the invention are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The invention iself, however, both as to its organization and its method of operation, together with additional objects and advantages thereof, will best be understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference characters indicate like parts throughout the several figures and in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation of a needle holder according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a similar but fragmentary elevation of the jaws with one jaw broken away to show a longitudinal section;

F FIGl. 3 is an enlarged section taken on line 33 of FIG. 4 is a section taken on line 4-4 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is an elevation similar to FIG. 1 of another embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 6 is a section taken on line 66 of FIG. 5.

Referring now more particularly to the drawing, in FIGS. 14 is illustrated one embodiment of the invention in which the needle holder comprises a pair of elongated members 10, 12 pivoted to each other at 14. Each member has a slightly arcuate handle portion 16 on one side of the pivot and a relatively short jaw 18 on the other side of the pivot.

While any suitable pivot structure may be used a preferred structure comprises a pair of semicircular cavities 22 formed in member 10 and defining a centrally apertured disc 24 which projects partially from the member to seat in a slot 26 in the other member 12. The walls 28 of slot 26 are formed as partially projecting discs with apertures aligned with the aperture of disc 24 and receiving the pivot pin 14. On pivoted movements of members 10 and 12 the disc 24 turns about the axis of pivot 14 in slot 26 while parts 28 turn in the circular cavities 22.

The engaging faces of jaws 18 are suitably serrated as at 30 to increase the clamping friction on a needle grasped between the jaws. Additionally, slot 26 is extended longitudinally into one jaw as shown best in FIG. 2 so as to receive a portion of a curved needle when clamped transversely of the plane of the jaws thus increasing the bite on the needle.

The handle portions 16 are provided with a pair of cylindrical stu-b projections 32 projecting toward each other and in alignment. A coil spring 34 is mounted between the portions 16 to spread them apart and thus clamp the jaws 18 together. The end of spring 34 are removably seated about projections 32 so that the spring may be moved to seat on another pair of similar stub projections 32' and thereby increase the leverage applied to clamp jaws 18 more tightly together. With the described arrangement a heavier or lighter coil spring may obviously be substituted for spring 34.

To utilize the improved needle holder described above, the surgeon lays the holder in his palm with handle portions 16 adjacent the fingers and the heel of the thumb respectively. To then perform a single stitch only the following motions need be made:

(1) By pressure of the palm, the jaws are opened and moved about a needle to be grasped;

(2) The palm pressure is relaxed which automatically clamps the needle in the jaws;

(3) Without moving the hand or fingers the holder is moved to insert the needle point through the tissue;

(4) Palm pressure opens the jaws releasing the needle;

(5) The holder is moved to position the open jaws about the point of the needle;

(6) Palm pressure is released to grab the needle point;

(7) Without moving the fingers the holder is moved to pull the needle completely through the tissue;

(8) Palm pressure is applied to release the needle.

It is obvious from the above that the number of steps involved in "making a single surgical stitch is reduced from thirteen steps as previously described for a conventional holder to eight steps and that the effort and fatigue involved in making each stitch is reduced even more considerably.

The modified embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 5 and 6 is similar in all respects to that of FIGS. 1-4 except that the length of pivoted members 10, 12 is somew at reduced and the curvature of their handle portions somewhat increased. The primary difr'erence is that a U-shaped spring 40 is substituted for coil spring 34 and provided with different holding means. Spring 40 is formed of spring wire legs 42 and has a helical coil 44 centrally in its bight. The ends of legs 42 are removably received in a pair of apertures 46 in members 10', 12'. A pair of stub projections 48 are secured in alignment to members 10', 12' as by means of rivets 50, or the like. Each projection has a slot or channel 52 which slidingly seats a leg 42 of spring 40.

The holder of FIG. 5 operates in identical manner to the holder of FIG. 1 as described above. When the handle portions are squeezed the legs 42 of spring 40 slide in channels 52 compressing the spring and guidingly retain it for later decompression movement. By squeezing the spring legs 42 toward each other to remove the ends from apertures 46, the spring may be removed and replaced by one of lighter or heavier gauge wire.

Although certain specific embodiments of the invention have been shown and described, it is obvious that many modifications thereof are possible. The invention, therefore, is not to be restricted except insofar as is necessitated by the prior art and by the spirit of the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. A surgical needle holder comprising a pair of members each having a short jaw and a longer handle on opposite sides of a pivot positioned between and connecting said members, each of said handles being of a length at least equal to the width of a hand of a user and being oppositely curved so as to fit comfortably in the palm of said hand for, application of squeezing pressure between the fingers and the heel of the thumb, said jaws having tip portions including substantially planar, continuous faces for mutual engagement over their entire surfaces without interposition of other'parts except when clampingly engaging a surgical needle, and'resilient biasing means urging said handle portions apart to engage the clamping facesof the jaw tip portions, said jaws being separable against the bias of said resilient means by application of palm squeezing pressure to the handles so as to radically reduce the motions and effort involved in suturing.

2. A surgical needle holder according to claim 1 wherein said handles are provided with two pairs of aligned stub projections facing each other at different distances from said pivot, said biasing means being a coil spring whose ends are fitted over one pair of said stub projections, said coil spring being removable from said pair of projections and replaceable on the other pair of projections whereby to increase the clamping leverage exerted on said jaws.

3. A surgical needle holder according to claim 1, wherein said biasing means comprises a wire spring of U-shape having a helical coil at the bight, the legs of said U-shaped spring being removably received in openings in said handles for substitution of a similar spring of larger diameter wire.

4. A surgical needle holder according to claim 3 wherein said handles are provided with a pair of projections adjacent said openings, each said projection having a channel extending longitudinally of the handle portions and slidingly seating the leg of the U-shaped spring.

5. A surgical needle holder according to claim 1 wherein the engaging faces of the tip portions of said jaws are provided with serrations to increase the frictional bite on a needle when clamped therebetween.

6. A surgical needle holder according to claim 5 wherein one of said jaws is provided with a longitudinal shallow groove spaced inwardly from its tip portion and adapted to receive and bite a segment of a curved needle grasped transversely between the jaws.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,150,496 3/1939 EricSSOn 12832l 2,268,282 12/1941 Gary 81427 2,478,595 8/1949 Richter 128-321 2,795,225 6/1957 Sovatkin et al. 128340 DALTON L. TRULUCK, Primary Examiner. 

